The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1947. Russian Policy.

Evening Star, Issue 26153, 15 July 1947, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1947. Russian Policy.

The Russian riddle as presented in the Kremlin’s attitude to eo-opera-tion with the Western Powers would be difficult to solve if there were, not available an appreciation of the religion of Communism and of a dictatorship that effectively determines policy. The inspired hostility to the Paris Conference of Soviet writers and broadcasters can be interpreted in the threat that dollar aid will weaken the structure of the Communistic regime in the bordering States. The Soviet Union’s professions of a desire to co-operate and of a wish to see Europe placed steadfastly on the road to prosperity are shown to have little substance by the Kremlin’s ejection of the invitation to attend Paris. It must be remembered that the Marshall Plan, so long as it meant their economic recovery, extended to all countries, including those within the Russian sphere. No nation in Europe, not even the Soviet Union, can afford to do without the proferred help. Those nations that have renounced United States aid must look in vain for assistance from Russia, for the wealth of the U.S.S.R. lies in potential resources. The rapacity with which she has stripped industrial plant from subdued territory is ample evidence of her plight. The suggestion has been advanced that the Russian refusal to consider dollar aid is prompted by distraught recollections of the economic plight forced on Europe when the United States stopped lending during the 1930 .financial crisis. Russia can function more or less self-sufficiently—under the threat of Hitler’s aggression exports were cut to 0.8 per cent, in 1936 —but her satellites are dependent on trade for their very existence, and few would in any case willingly accept the low living standards of their adopted mother country. , The tyranny of Communism is extending beyond the confines of the Soviet Union, and disruptive fifth columns are gnawing at the foundations of democracy. American aid to war-stricken countries does not suit the Soviet, for only a slump can give her a reasonable chance of catching up on western technical progress. “ Should the Capitalist crisis come it will be the first for which the Communist parties of the world have been fully prepared; the first which can be fully exploited for Soviet purposes without overt acts from Moscow,” says .the ‘ Economist.’ “ And it, will be ’waited for patiently and calmly by men who fear no elections, whose vision is not bounded by the limits of any five-year plan, who have none of the democratic itch for quick results, and who may even feel grateful that a sense of crisis can be kept alive among their countrymen by official voices prophesying war.”